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15 Surprise Celebrity Guests that Stole the Show at Festivals

Recording artist Jennifer Hudson performs onstage with Gorgon City during day 1 of the 2015 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival (Weekend 1) at the Empire Polo Club on April 10, 2015 in Indio, California. (Photo by: Karl Walter)

Festivals are made of unforgettable moments, but this fest season has been especially memorable thanks to a steady stream of unexpected on-stage surprises. Artists are increasingly upping the ante during their sets by wheeling out celebrity guests, sharing the stage with collaborators for surprise performances, and even locking lips for pure shock value. Here are 15 of the most unexpected celebrity moments from this year’s biggest festivals.

Madonna joined Drake on stage during his Coachella set and planted him with a serious smooch that basically broke the internet. It was the kiss heard round the world, and if you’re just hearing about it now for the first time we’re as shocked as Drake was when Madonna went in for the kill.

3. Kanye West @ Coachella 2015 (Weekend 2)

Kanye West made a surprise appearance during The Weeknd’s Coachella set and blew fans away with performances of “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”, “Black Skinhead”, “Don’t Like (Remix)”, and “All Day”.

Jennifer Hudson joined Gorgon City in the Gobi Tent at Coachella and took the audience to church with her soulful vocals on the track “Go All Night”. She worked it out like a true diva and we can’t get enough.

5. CL @ HARD Summer 2015

K-pop icon and 2NE1 singer CL joined Jack Ü during his HARD Summer set and brought some seriously fierce energy to the mashup “Dirty Doctor Pepper Vibes”.

6. Jack Black @ HARD Summer 2015

Jack Black unexpectedly rocked out on stage with Die Antwoord at HARD Summer, hamming it up in a light blue velour track suit and trolling festivalgoers with some hilarious jokes…“’cause he was feelin’ it, bruh.”

7. Zack de la Rocha @ Coachella 2015

The crowd lost it when Zack de la Rocha came out during Run the Jewels’ Coachella set to deliver his fire-spitting guest verse on “Close Your Eyes”.

Zach Galifianakis and Jon Hamm had several surprises in store for lucky fans at Bonnaroo this year. First, Galifianakis gave an unannounced 15-min performance at Bonnaroo’s Comedy Theatre, where Hamm joined him on stage and became his “pet”.

Florence is a real trooper — despite her broken foot, she invited Father John Misty to join her on stage during Florence + The Machine’s Coachella set for an acoustic cover of Nazareth’s 1975 ballad “Love Hurts”.